At one stage, the Kingdom of Morocco ranked 90th on the global FIFA rankings. Now, they are in the top ten footballing countries of the world. It has taken belief, deliberate strategies, passion and commitment.
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRFM) president Fouzi Lekjaa boldly recollects the journey, one that has been defined by diligence, planning and strategy to see that the boxes are ticked right.
In an interactive interview with Onze Mondial publication, Lekjaa spills some of the most kept secrets as he reveals the nitty gritty of this development journey.
QN: When you arrived at the head of the Federation, Morocco was ranked around 90th in the FIFA rankings, before reaching the top 10 ten years later. What was the state of Moroccan football at that time?
Fouzi Lekjaa: In reality, things did not start in 2014 when I took over the presidency of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.
Their genesis goes back much further. As you know, today in Morocco, there is a national development model initiated and led by His Majesty the King, May God Assist Him.
This model is based on a harmonious balance between economic and social development.
In this dynamic, youth occupies a central place: they are considered a key lever for the development of the Kingdom.
Within this framework, sport, and football in particular, plays a major role.
His Majesty the King defined a roadmap in 2008, during the National Sports Conferences, specifying the main guidelines for the sector.
It is a detailed roadmap that covered all aspects of the structural development of sport and football, notably the professionalization of the game, governance, and the structuring of actions, among others.
For us, this roadmap constituted a fundamental framework that laid the foundations for the development of Moroccan football.
QN: Can we say that youth is at the heart of the project, especially through sport and football?
Fouzi Lekjaa: Obviously, all the programs I mentioned are destined for Moroccan youth.
For instance, in women’s football, a sports-study program has been launched in several regions of Morocco.
Today, this system benefits all young people entering club training centers.
Every year, there are tens of thousands of young people, girls and boys, who practice football while pursuing their schooling in parallel.
It is a generational effect that expands the practice of the sport, certainly, but it also gives hope to a large segment of Moroccan youth.
QN: At what point did you feel that your project was taking shape? And what, in your opinion, was the turning point in this evolution?
Fouzi Lekjaa: The defining moment, as I mentioned, dates back even before my arrival at the Federation, with the inauguration of the Mohammed VI Academy by His Majesty the King.
Then, after my election to the head of the Federation, the first major turning point, both sporting and historical, was the World Cup in Qatar. From that moment on, all stakeholders in the Moroccan football ecosystem, as well as the general public, gained the conviction that it was possible.
It confirmed that the work undertaken previously yielded concrete results and that the process was on the right track and had to be pursued.
Moreover, we served as an example to entire continents that had never reached that level of competition.
Today, we no longer settle for mere participation: we are in a mindset of conquest, with the ambition to win major titles and establish ourselves sustainably at the highest level.
Is the objective to remain sustainably in the world’s top 10 over the long term, avoiding, for example, the roller-coaster trajectories that other nations like Italy have experienced?
On one hand, regarding training, we are aware of an obvious reality: you cannot train 1,000 players in a center and expect to get 1,000 top-level players. The conversion rates to the elite level are known and unavoidable. However, expanding the foundation of training remains essential. This allows many young people, even if they do not reach the very highest level, to access an intermediate level: becoming professional players in the League, evolving in amateur divisions, or moving towards other professions related to sport, or even integrating other sectors of activity thanks to their general education. Because beyond football, these young people benefit from a solid educational foundation based on schooling and the values of sport. These values are at the very heart of football and our actions: fair play, tolerance, respect for others, and respect for the rules. It is a true philosophy of life that we seek to transmit. This is what we try to instill every day in young people, girls and boys, in our training centers, even before addressing technical, tactical, or physical aspects.
QN: Was all the work carried out so far also aimed at strengthening Morocco’s positioning on the international stage, making sure the country is clearly identified and recognized?
Fouzi Lekjaa: In any case, making Morocco known as a nation is part of a historical reality. The Kingdom, with over fourteen centuries of existence, is historically recognized as a major actor located between two continents—Europe and Africa—and as a space of civilizational construction at the crossroads of Euro-Mediterranean, Arab-Islamic, and Amazigh influences. Regarding football, the diagnosis is relatively simple. We are a young society, like many African societies, with a very large proportion of young people under the age of 25. Furthermore, football also plays a role in terms of influence and soft power, serving as a gentle force contributing to the Kingdom’s positioning on the international stage. All countries that have succeeded sportingly and football-wise have benefited from this ripple effect. Similarly, and in parallel with this work, we were aware that the more sporting results progress—from the 75th rank to the world’s top 10—the more the country benefits from this global influence and the richness of the image offered by football worldwide.
QN: It is essential to accompany and supervise these emerging young talents. Can you tell us about EVOSPORT, which occupies a central place in the training system of Moroccan football?
Fouzi Lekjaa: Always with the same objective and line of conduct, it is about correcting this important segment, which is youth, through training. The same observation was made at the club level. Today, on a global scale, clubs generally align with two or three major strategies. Some look primarily for immediate performance by recruiting the best players to consolidate their position at the highest level. Others are essentially training clubs that create value through youth development and then profit from it. Finally, there are intermediate models. The 10-to-17 age segment I mentioned was generally neglected by Moroccan clubs. This is notably explained by the fact that attention is often concentrated on the first team, its regular results, and its performance at the continental level, to the detriment of youth categories, which benefit from fewer resources, energy, and monitoring.
QN: How do you remedy this?
Fouzi Lekjaa: We have put in place a tripartite logic.
First, the National Technical Directorate defines the roadmap as well as the training content by category, applicable to all clubs.
Secondly, it selects the profiles that supervise this process: coaches, physical trainers, and educators.
Finally, clubs align with this framework and delegate the implementation of this training according to this structured model.
Obviously, clubs are the primary beneficiaries of the product of this training: they have priority and primacy over it.
The system also includes a structured financial mechanism, with an initial amount paid upon signing the professional contract, and a second amount in the event of the player’s resale.
Furthermore, a simplified joint-stock company has been set up to ensure the management and administration of the entire system.
QN: All these investments bound to have an impact on the national team. The semi-final of the 2022 World Cup gave Morocco an exceptional status. Can we say today that Morocco has become a world reference, beyond just the African framework?
Fouzi Lekjaa: That was indeed the objective, and this result has become a benchmark, not only for the senior national team but also for all national teams. Today, all selections, across all categories, approach their competitions with the desire to do better than the senior team, which reached the World Cup semi-finals. It is this mindset that notably allowed the U20 team to win the World Cup in Chile. It is also this mentality that carried the U17 team to the quarter-finals against Brazil. Even though the elimination was experienced as a disappointment, the level of performance shows a new standard of requirement: losing narrowly 2-1 against Brazil in the quarter-finals is now considered a failure. Today, the level of expectation is such that the minimum level of satisfaction is to replicate performances like the semi-finals, or even to achieve exploits similar to those of the U20 world champions. That is the mindset from now on.
QN: Let’s return to the last Africa Cup of Nations: how did you experience this competition, and what is your assessment of it?
Fouzi Lekjaa: The AFCON is a step in a process that is planned at least until 2030.
Overall, this AFCON was different from previous editions. It took place across nine stadiums, with an unprecedented format where, for the first time, only one match was played per stadium, unlike past editions where two matches took place on the same day in the same venue.
The quality of the infrastructures, and particularly the pitches, was exceptional.
The security and hosting arrangements were also key elements. This notably includes measures facilitating access to the country, such as free visas for many African countries, as well as the implementation of electronic systems for obtaining them.
Economically, this AFCON also marked a turning point. According to official CAF financial data, the net revenue for this edition exceeded 300 million dollars. For comparison, the two previous editions showed much lower figures: around 5 million in Cameroon and around 80 million in Côte d’Ivoire. I am only repeating official figures here. I am not inventing anything, I am simply reading them. We can therefore say, with modesty but objectivity, that the Africa Cup of Nations has changed in dimension, rhythm, and level.
QN: Let’s go back to the results: CAF awarded the victory to Morocco on administrative grounds (forfeit). Is this a relief for you, or does this victory leave a bitter taste?
Fouzi Lekjaa: In any case, we must always give a football victory its true value. A victory is a victory: it earns three points in a championship, a star when winning a competition, and it remains written in the history of the club or selection. For our part, what we deeply regret is that we would have wished for a more accomplished end to the competition, a true end to the celebration. Until the 95th minute, all the ingredients of a great event were there. Generally speaking, I prefer to limit myself to recalling that the institutions of the Kingdom of Morocco complied with legality throughout the process. Moreover, despite our disagreement with the first-instance decision, we chose not to show any public discontent. We remained faithful to the values of an ancient nation, strong with over 14 centuries of history, and we pursued the process in compliance with the established rules. We requested the application of Articles 82 and 84, which are clear and precise. Reading them does not require complex interpretation. At the end of the procedure, our case was upheld. Our Senegalese brothers, for their part, decided to pursue the process on appeal before the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport). As for us, we will go to the end of the procedure and will naturally accept the final decision. If it is favorable to us, we will be happy to recover this Cup. Otherwise, we will remain fair-play and congratulate our Senegalese brothers if the CAS decision is in their favor.
QN: Following up on this, many reactions on social media mention Morocco’s influence within African governing bodies. What do you say to them?
Fouzi Lekjaa: In any case, there are rumors and comments, and there is reality and truth. Reality always ends up imposing itself on everyone. Morocco, for decades, was outside the governance of the Confederation of African Football. CAF has been led by different structures and dynamics over time, and Morocco has only recently regained an active place, in coherence with its positioning and contribution to African football. Morocco cannot be blamed for seeking to pull African football upwards. The objective is precisely to foster a dynamic of progress, rather than remaining in a logic of stagnation or limited value-sharing.
QN: Back to the pitch. Does changing the head coach a few months before the FIFA World Cup represent a risk for the national team?
Fouzi Lekjaa: No, in any case, it is not the first time this has happened. Even with Walid (Regragui), for example, we already changed coaches two or three months before a major competition, and also before the Olympic Games. This should not be analyzed with the same logic as other federations, which have their own specificities that I respect. For us, it is a structured process and a clear strategy: each person, no matter how competent, takes on a mission with a beginning and an end, and continuity is ensured. The current coach, Mohamed Ouahbi, has been part of this project for several years. He worked with the U20 teams, he knows the players, he followed their evolution, and he has an accurate reading of their profiles and situations. For us, there is therefore no rupture, but continuity.
QN: An important specificity of Moroccan football concerns dual-national players. For example, what could the national team have been like with a player like Lamine Yamal? And what ultimately explains his choice not to represent Morocco?
Fouzi Lekjaa: The management of dual-national players has never been a matter of instant decisions or rushed choices. For us in the Kingdom, all dual-national players who possess Moroccan nationality are full-fledged Moroccans. Their Moroccan identity gives them exactly the same rights as those residing in Morocco. The only difference is their place of residence, often determined by professional, personal, or family reasons. It is this vision that unites the Kingdom with its diaspora, with Moroccans living abroad. It is primarily a matter of life paths and not a rupture of belonging. Regarding dual-national players, we present the project of Moroccan football to all the talents concerned, without ever conditioning their sporting choice. Their decision alters nothing in our relationship with them. There is a lot of noise around these topics, notably around Lamine Yamal. To be clear, I do not know of any Spaniard named “Jamal” in the history of Spanish football. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that our history and our civilization allow us to be proud, even when players from our origins contribute to the influence of other great nations, like Spain.
